Emotional Impact of Musical/Visual Synchrony Variation in Film

The emotional impact of synchronous musical and visual prominences within the cinematic experience awaits thorough empirical evaluation. Film composition is defined here as a genre of stereotypes, whose methodologies are not feasibly subject to significant redevelopment. As consequence, the research focuses on improving components of the audience recognisable functions of film music. Subjects graded cinematic clips with musical elements that varied in their synchronous interaction with visual prominences. A positive response to more frequent synchronisation between music and film was concluded. Perceptual expectancy, attention and multisensory integration are principal in analysis of the findings. I. Perception, Enculturation and Cliché Upon listening to music, activations of the brain evoke emotions 1 . Conjecture that emotional influence is a fundamental export of music holds prominence in academia2 Aragano (2009) explains that auditory information (and therefore music) gains this emotional potential via our perceptual mechanism of metaphor. To avoid this process and listen to sounds as disassociated objects , yet this attaches emotion to an entity devoid of any such property (Zangwill, 2007). However, such attachment is sufficiently prevalent that it is not limited to human or even human infants (Laurel, 2010). Cross species studies have shown that pitch and timbre can elicit consistent emotional responses (Morton, 1977). 3 requires significant training and effort (Gorbman & Chion, 1994). The overriding representational process of music as metaphor occurs in our perception and imagination (Peacocke, 2009), which is determined by our individual experiences and enculturation4 1 Activations take place within the Inferior Brodmann’s area, BA 44, BA 45, and BA 46. This is an area associated with music-syntactic analysis and working memory operations (Koelsche et al., 2006). 2 This is an infrequently challenged suggestion, yet Hindermith argues well in opposition. For further discussion see (Mew, 1985). 3 As opposed to the indicative and communicative modes of listening which correlate to emotion (Kane, 2007). 4 Enculturation in the context of the cinematic experience refers to an accumulated appreciation of the repeated conventions of film. In this project, examples from Western cinema were used as the source material on a Western enculturated subject group. (Morrison et. al, 2008). Stimulation becomes multisensory within the cinematic experience as information is received through both visual and auditory sensory modalities. The consequence of this is significant, as the individual sensory modalities have sufficient influence to alter perception in the other (Amedi et al., 2005) (Recanzone, 2003). Music therefore amasses new metaphorical, perceptual and emotional potential within the multisensory environment. The Hollywood movie system’s command of western cinema has enculturated the target audience in their response to this amassed potential. Such consistency in response is reflected in the industries cycle of repetition, resulting in prosaic works targeted at the mass market5. Music composed for film has no immunity to the stalemate of proven formula. Cliché is commonplace and even the relatively small group of composers that dominate the mainstream industry are recognising the stagnation of creativity 6. Association is the cause; enculturated musical inference has solidified the methodologies of film scoring (Lipscomb, 2005), generating a creativity paradox for composers. Resultantly academics and critics often cite film composition as ipso facto, that is, inferior to concert music (Wierzbiki, 2009). A comparison between the two distinct art forms is a redundant process though. Music within film does not rely exclusively on the musical signification that ties it to concert music or additionally popular music which has established itself within the film soundtrack7. Cultural musical codes 8 II. Synchrony and cinematic codes (of which the interaction of music and image is component in establishing) determine a film viewer’s response (Gorbman, 1987). The criticised banal musical design common in music composed for film builds the semiotic complex of the film’s overall purpose through implementation of recognisable schema. But accepting the efficacy of established methodologies is to ignore the potential of their refinement. The perceptual and emotional response to synchronous instances between musical and visual elements within the cinematic experience awaits thorough empirical evaluation. Research into multi-sensory integration demonstrates that one perceptual modality has the ability to enhance or bias another under particular temporal and spatial constraints (within which musical accompaniment to film is bound) (Koelewijn, 2010). "The extent to which sound activates an image depends on how it introduces points of synchronisation – predictably or not, variously or monotonously." Chion. 5 The top six grossing films worldwide in 2011 were sequels (four out of six in 2010). Repetition is highly successful. 6 However, such composers are hypocritical in this analysis. Alberge (2008) details Hans Zimmer’s (Academy Award winning composer) praise for John Williams (multi Academy Award winning composer), but Williams’ success can be largely attributed to remaining “True to the conventions of the form” i.e. non-progressive, recognisable compositional functions (Scheurer, 1997). 7 The films of Quentin Tarantino expertly demonstrate the potential of popular music in film. 8 This includes any associations drawn from previous incarnations of the music if not composed specifically for the film. Academics have begun to direct their attention to the potentials of the highly specific audiovisual effects of film. Yet establishing viable methodology to explicate this is proving problematic (Joost et al., 2008). Research by Lipscomb and Kendall (1996) has utilised Osgood, Suci and Tennenbaum’s (1957) division of the semantic differential scale to evaluate audiovisual perception. Although the Potency and Activity aspects of the tripartite scale are convincingly explored, the Evaluative impact remains under-explained. This study aims to explore the evaluative impacts of varying the interaction of musical and visual content within the cinematic experience.